World Conference Policy
The Chancellor of the Exchequer talked some admirable sense to the American correspondents in London on Wednesday. Nothing could be wiser at this juncture than to insist, as Mr. Chamberlain did, that the days of isolation have gone by, that all nations, if they arc to live at all, must exchange one another's products; and that no nation, or group of nations—not even the United States or the British Empire—can hope to be self-sufficient. It is true that the Chancellor's observations regarding Protection a little suggested that unsound Protection means other people's tariffs, and sound Protection our own, but there was candour in his admission that in negotiations with the United States, or any other country, our hands are to some extent tied by the Ottawa agreements —though in Mr. Chamberlain's view ample room is still left for profitable understandings for freer trade. If the Chancellor speaks for the Government in this matter, as no doubt he does, it is staking almost everything on the World Economic Conference, particularly in its endeavours for the raising of prices. That is the right policy, great though the risks may be.
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